Shift light, tach, by ear, rev limiter; what's your choice

33IMP said

So, next question. If you use a light, where do you set it? Assume you want the shift at 6000 (for the sake of argument), and the shift ACTUALLY happens 300 rpm after the lever is moved (auto only).
I used the tach in my nine second car, but it was a glide car, so the shift wasn't almost instantaneous off the line. My 11 sec 727 car needed the 1-2 shift quite a bit sooner....
As a spectator, at night at the drags, I see shift lights on for longer than I would like, in some cars.

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Exactly. You have to set the light at an rpm to start and then test. You can’t anticipate the light like you can watch the tach needle. So there is a big delay from the time the light comes on until the driver throws the lever. There is then a delay from when the lever is thrown and the transmission actually shifts.

There are far too many variables to say if you want to shift at 7000 you set the light at 6800 or some other number.

I know guys who have their lights come on 700 rpm before they want to shift.